Geographic locations speaking in my head aside, I thought that was a damn fine answer. Well said, L.A.

I've been sitting on these pictures for about 2 weeks now. They were taken over my birthday weekend in New Hampshire, where a brilliant foursome of friends stomped around in the sun every day, and ate out on the lawn every night. As we drove home, and inched closer to New York, I could feel my good mood evaporating. Summer fun almost done. The Fall audition grind ahead. Subway rides, and pages of sides, and 3 inch heels. It's not a hard job, by any means, but pounding the pavement as an actress can be, let's say...unappealing. Listen, me and NY had a good thing going! I actually used to love pulling from a closet of bargain RTW, getting dressed up as whatever I was supposed to be that day, and racing in and out of casting offices! But we've hit a roadblock in our relationship. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T WEAR ANYTHING IN MY NOW 90% HANDMADE NEON CLOSET FOR THAT NEWEST HOSPITAL-LAWYER-POLICE-DRAMEDY. DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO WEAR, NY.

And I suddenly thought: New York is going to turn on me soon if I don't do something about it.

I really do believe in thought creating matter. Not in a weird cult way, I've just personally experienced it: when I concentrate on something, the fruits of my thinking are pretty obvious. Over the past few years, I dove into the sewing community, and this online nickname, both of which I LOVE. Though all of the things created from "being" oonaballoona have been so much fun, I've put my real name and the things that come with it in a bit of a corner. I often tell sewists I'm happy to be called oona over Marcy. When I see people who actually know me as Marcy on the city streets, they're surprised to see me in town--they have zero idea who this "oona" is, to be honest, they think I'm social media illiterate. This guy, for example, was shocked to know I had a Twitter account. I was all, YOU SHOULD SEE ME ON INSTAGRAM YO.

But most of my sewing peeps know exactly where I stomp around, IRL and online. Because that's what I'm putting out there. Of course my oonaballoona-sewing-life is more fruitful.

I'm not getting all floopy on you here (I mean, maybe I've already jumped the shark on that count when I admitted that States talk to me in my head...), I just came to the realization that it's important for me to start using and enjoying my actual name, and all the things that come with it, again. So I did an @marcyharriell bomb on just about everything. IT FELT WEIRD. But almost immediately, random people started stopping me again on the street because they recognized me from my acting work, rather than my sewing hijinks.

I'm not knocking hijinks. I LOVE HIJINKS. I just want to get back to loving ALL OF THE HIJINKS.

AND OBVIOUSLY I'LL STILL BE TALKING IN ALL CAPS LIKE THE OONA YOU KNOW AND HOPEFULLY TOLERATE.

SO HERE'S THE SEWING SCOOP! This is a draped job, I went nuts on my dress form about a month ago, right before a really wonderful musical workshop ate up a large chunk of summer, in the very best way. (You'll hear more about that sort of thing, now that my spilt personalities are one.) It has leather straps enclosed in a mitered facing, a back yoke, CB invisible zip, and hip level godets at the side seam. The hem curves into a mini train, the better to swan about in. I finished the MIND NUMBINGLY LONG SWEEP of said hem just before leaving for The Birthday Weekend Of Sun And Food. And it was the perfect dress to lounge in after the final delectable meal of the trip! (Guys. Strawberry Shortcake Waffles for breakfast. And it only got better.)

The yardage is some sort of heavyweight, possibly drapery quality linen from Chic Fabrics. It has a slick feel to it, even after washing--it swishes in the most wonderful way, like heavy water!

I used my "birthday brat card" to get Ruggy to snap some shots on my iPhone, before dinner on the lawn.

(Oh by the way, his real name is Rob. But I'm pretty sure you didn't think his real name was Ruggy. He's charmed to meet you. He came up with this post title. He would also like you to know that he fully supports my, and any gal's, non-wearing of bras. He just doesn't cotton to NYC creeps and weirdos viewing my breasts sans any fabric whatsoever, and possibly acting upon untowardly thoughts. He thinks my tatas are glorious. I'm paraphrasing here. He also had a super fancy camera all wrapped up and just waiting for me to open it when we snapped these shots. Which I mention because I ironically hollered: WOW, these phone pictures are better than my old beat up camera!)

See? Still chock full of parenthetical asides. Same oona, new Marcy. Which reminds me! Old social media links in posts might lead you to a temporary page, I'll be slowly working through those. But, I've changed all my handles to @marcyharriell. New links for instagram, twitter,pinterest and my facebook page are all in the sidebar now, for those of you actually viewing this in blog format--but if you follow my accounts already, you're all set. It's just a name change.

What a thought-provokingly fun post! I noticed yesterday that you'd changed your IG handle to your real name when my husband was like "Hey, sewing people are talking about comics with me!" (Actually, now that I mention him, we had a biiiiiig heart-to-heart last night about how he puts incredible stress on himself to be 100% authentic both at work and at home, and values being the same person in all contexts... which made me think about how I'm fine being Gillian-lite at work, as long as I get to be all-me in my time off. I guess we're all working out our split personalities these days!) Enjoy your new camera and extended birthday celebrations!

OMG that twitter pic....you must have gotten twitter bombed! What did you work on together??

And let me say that bra-less living is the way to go. I had to give in during the pregnant / breastfeeding / postpartum years, but it's definitely preferable for those of us that can get away with it ;)

the notifications were nutso. i really did think my account had been hacked. i did "in the heights", back when we had our sew weekly meetup-- i thought you knew? as you can tell by the pic, it was zero fun ;). what a fantastic group of people in that theater.

yeah, and i hear that if you don't need wires, your tata muscles will fight gravity on their own! for how long, well...

I am woefully oblivious to much of the American theatre world - I blame growing up in rural Canada and having a man who hates going to the theatre. I'm trying hard to make up for my lack of education now. ;)

I'm happy to see you merging your identities! I was never sure if it was ok to call you Marcy, and I still love Oonaballoona. I forsee great success in the merging of your professional and blogfessional selves. PS - It would be pretty nifty to see you on TV. Can you give us a head's up when you're going to be on? Fun!

Nice one - I'm looking forward to more of your new conjoined self! I've got far too many different personas going on (mostly because I decide to do something when I'm in a weird mood and then don't tell anyone), and I've also been thinking about simplifying things recently.

Wohooo! I've always assumed you wanted a bit of privacy or an alter-ego or something. Yay for being all the you's all the time! I've been working on some new projects and wondering if I should mesh it all together, too.

ps as I'm currently obsessed with all things Hamilton, I'm pretty jealous you know Lin-Manuel Miranda.

haha! you know, now that you mention it, at first i *did* want privacy from my real name. theater fans can be rabid about their loyalties, and one of my first jobs was the first replacement Mimi in Rent. some of those fans truly madly deeply HATED me, and used the internet to commiserate about it. i shrugged it off then, and it makes me laugh now... but at the time, it was nice to have a corner where people didn't know the "business" side.

and lin is awesomesauce! (HA. i just looked up after typing that, to see rob quietly laughing at the look on my face-- "what are you doing?" he said. "i'm trying to think of a better word than 'awesomesauce'", i replied.)

I totally hear ya. Speaking as a theater fan, I totally have played the loyalty card on some talented people because they just weren't the same, or gone to see a show because I'm fangurling HARD over someone I love. Or been bummed because someone new did something just a little different than the original. Which I know isn't logical because everyone I've ever known in the industry has been crazy talented, and roles should change a bit with the people that play them.Not that I've seen anything recently, because moving from NY to Chicago put me in a bit of a "but it's not the same as NY" slump. Which I should totally get over. Because I'm sure everyone in the cast here is just as awesomesauce as you are.Rambling much? Sorry. It's the heat, I'm sure.

Beautiful dress, as always. I love watching you YOU. Breath of fresh air.

Know what you mean about coming out. Have had my internet persona as hearth/hearthrose/hearthie for over a decade. Wrote a book, opened a business site online, and now my real name is out... and I even showed my *mom* my work. Eek. It's weird but good. - Amy ;D

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you and Lin-Manuel Miranda know each other, but to see two people whom I admire very much unexpectedly in one picture blew my mind. (And of course, as usual that's a lovely dress.)

Oh lovely one, I am so proud! Over here in cabaret land, I've sort of let my blog drift form what clothes I make to what shows I do, and what sequinny horrors I make to do said shows in,and I am in awe of the solid followers who haven't run screaming back to Pattern land but hang in there to laugh along with me! Ad the iron is that my real day jobis owning a craft and sewing shop, which rarely gets a mention!So in a nutshell, I have a wee bit of an inkling of what it all is, and I love that you are Marcy and I confess I have massively stalked your youtube videos because watching and listening to you perform makes me want to time my inevitable visit to NYC with seeing you on stage!!! So, if you could kindly organise to be in a musical around the same time as the nerdelesque NYC festival (early April) I would be most pleased. I am happy to write you a letter of support saying s much to pass onto any producers. I am quite sure it could be the clincher in getting that big role!!! ;-) yours with extremely affectionate irony, MrsC xo

I don't know why I never thought to look you up on YouTube...you are awesome! Congrats on the personality merge, and merde on the fall auditions. My niece starts a job at NYU in October, so trips are already being planned! ~Martina

I actually already started to think of you as Marcy for some reason quite a while back, which is odd for me because I usually have the hardest time switching names in my head.

Awesome dress. I have been craving some tropical print for a while now, myself, even though the local weather has been strangely UN-tropical lately. But anyway, I'm headed for a 30% off(!) fabric sale today and some tropical print fabric is coming home with me.

I always wondered about your life in NY as a quirky, stylish sewista and actor. I would love to read those little adventures in addition to your sewing ones. I am really excited to hear the stories that encompass your full breadth of giving me life!